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Lagos Episode 2: Beware the Lagosian Triangle
We are instructed to meet in the bar of the fancy hotel where Jack Raptor is staying, and most of us show up on time. Adebola is fascinated by the drones being used by the dwarf bartender to prepare and serve drinks. Captain Jack shows up late, and persuades the bartender to serve him the entire top row of drinks. The team is hired by a well-dressed Caucasian man to find out what happened to their company's reporter, Jason Lyons. He is best known for doing in depth stories on various topics, from a conservative point of view, and has decided to do one on Lagosian pirates and piracy. To accomplish this, he hired a pirate ship and crew to take him to the areas which have had the most trouble so he could watch them in action, with a staged encounter with one of their company tankers. Unfortunately, both the pirate ship and the target went missing and haven't been heard from for two days, and the Johnson wants them back or at least Jason Lyons' report if he is dead. Captain Jack insists that they must indulge in the tradition of Jambalaya before beginning negotiations and the rest of us watch while the two put away incredible amounts of alcohol. Jack seems no weirder than ever, but our contact is a bit staggered by it. During the discussions, we are told that the SS Lollipop is the pirate vessel, crewed by Captain Jack's old crew, the YDU. Captain Jack spits his drink everywhere. We also learn that there was heavy fog just before they vanished, perhaps something cutting off their sensors. He gives us the location where this happened and we learn that there is nothing there, the rugged coastline very sparsely inhabited. During negotiations, he offers us 50000 nuyen total and an old fishing vessel. Circe and Dr. PIE astrally survey the place, learning that there is a background count. We head to visit Adisa the undertaker for some information. He is busily carving a fertility idol (a sculpture of a woman with swollen hips) and tells us that he's heard a lot of vessels have been going missing there, starting about 4 weeks ago. Adebola remembers hearing about various ships going missing, and that even the local pirate groups are spooked about it - it seems that whatever is doing this has no problem even with heavily armed military vessels. He puts down the finished idol and leaves to the back room. Before anyone else can do anything, Adebola scoops up the idol and shoves it in her pack. She mutters something about going to see Duante. Meanwhile, Captain Jack has gone to see his new ship. It is in bad shape, listing to one side and packed full of garbage. He's not even sure he can get the engine working. But he's happy to be on board again. He decides to make everyone else in the team clean it while he "supervises." Adebola introduces Circe to Duante, hinting that she might be an alien. Duante offers them a contact who has been investigating the disappearances, who might be willing to share what she knows. When Adebola calls the contact, we are told to meet her at the Victoria Island Golf Course, dressed nicely. Adebola knows that we'd need SINs to get inside, which, it turns out, nobody except her and Chloe have. While waiting for that meeting, Adebola and Dr. PIE fix the ship. Chloe, driven by Adebola, goes to meet Mrs. Saunders, waiting in the pro shop for her. Mrs. Saunders is a scarred elf carrying herself like an experienced military person. She and Chloe agree to share information - Mrs. Saunders will provide what she knows about her company's missing ships if the team will tell her what we learn. We accept a data chip with videos from their ships' black box recording systems, showing details of the attacks. Adebola learns that Mrs. Saunders works for Ares Arms, Africa. The video informs us that at midnight precisely, a heavy fog appeared, shutting off the ship's systems. The backup systems came on and we see the flickering of firearms and the sounds of metal crunching against the ship. The black box is thrown overboard, and we watch the ship being destroyed in the distance. We take our fishing vessel to the location provided. There, we find an SS Lollipop life preserver. At midnight, a heavy fog descends on our ship. All our electronics shut down. We hear things climbing up the sides of the ship. Circe, while astral sensing, finds that the astral is beginning to vibrate and feels as if some other reality is trying to come into our own. We are attacked by undead pirates with swords. The battle does not go well for them. Ice begins to form on the ship. A large land mass appears in front of us, not on any of our charts. We navigate the ship under a cliff, towards a dock. All of us feel like we are no longer on earth. Dr. Pie explains something about metaplanes. Around us, we see ships that are no longer used, some ancient vessels and some more recent. There is a spiraling passageway leading upwards, looking very treacherous. Dr. Pie summons a spirit which lifts the entire ship from the water and sets it at the top of the island. Nearby, there is a narrow bridge made of rock across a deep crevice in the stone. At the bottom of it, there is another dock with a ship, the SS Lollipop. Ignoring the rope ladder leading down, Captain Jack attaches a rope and rappels down the 75'. He swims to the ship and discovers it crewless and empty - all his stuff is gone. We hear chanting off in the distance and Circe leaves her body to investigate. Shedim attack her uninhabited body and Dr. Pie tries to fend them off, but can't. He orders his summoned spirit to attack them. Circe returns and has to fight to free her body from the spirit which has taken it over. Both Circe and Dr. Pie are hurt badly from this. Adebola, watching and not understanding at all, feels the terrifying presence of something very bad and flees the ship. Meanwhile, Captain Jack wanders away from the Lollipop and finds a place with his equipment and other stuff looted from various ships. Adebola gets part of a GM Doberman drone, and Chloe does something with a comm. link she finds. At the far end of the area, we find a cavern with a raised platform and an altar. Above the altar, a red rift is forming, being chanted at by three figures in red robes. A host of undead pirates and Shedim surrounds them in a circle. At the far end of that cavern, there are prisoners, the YDU and Jason Lyons. Adebola smells burning wood and pulls out the wooden idol. It seems to make the background count around them disappear and she hands it to Chloe who looks it over and hands it to Dr. PIE. With the idol out in the open, the Shedim all come to the alert and move to attack us. Captain Jack says "good distraction" and runs to free the YDU. They are not sure whether to be happy to see him or terrified. Jason Lyons himself is screaming frantically to be freed. The others enter combat, and Circe expends a huge effort to destroy our attackers, passing out in the process. Adebola tries to send her United Oil to attack, realizing with dismay that it can't harm the undead with its microwave weapon. Chloe is very effective with her rifle and Dr. Pie releases the idol which has been tugging on him. It moves towards the altar under its own power. Once Captain Jack has freed the prisoners, he attacks as well, and between the team members, the undead are driven off. Dr. Pie closes the rift with the idol. The idol turns dark and the cavern starts to slide back into the sea. Adebola takes back the idol. We rush back to the ship and escape on the SS Lollipop, leaving the other vessel to join all the other wreckage. = Rewards = * 5 Karma each (Chloe and Dr. Pie each get +1), MVP Circe (+1) * 10000 nuyen each * New contact: Mr. Johnson (John Karmichael) (Horizon contact) Loyalty 1/Connections 5